Chevron CEO Mike Wirth suggested on Sunday that gas prices have not peaked, undercutting some assessments within the Trump administration.
Wirth told CBS News’s Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation that “it’s very hard to say” prices at the pump have peaked. The oil executive pinned the sticky prices on the Strait of Hormuz blockade that has halted some 20% of global shipping for nearly two months.
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“What’s really needed is for flow to resume through the Strait of Hormuz. You can’t take 20% of the energy out of the system,” Wirth said.
But even when the strait reopens, Wirth predicted gas prices will remain elevated for the foreseeable future.
“Even if the strait were to open today, getting supplies to where they’re needed and resuming the normal functioning of the system is going to take some time,” he added.
The Chevron CEO also issued a stark warning about jet fuel costs, predicting that air travel will “probably get worse over the next few weeks.”
“I can’t predict how the airlines are going to price their product, but I think the upward pressure that they’re seeing on prices and the tightness in the market is likely to lead to further route optimization,” Wirth said. “And so flights may not be as abundant as they otherwise would have been. I think planes will probably be more full than they would have been. And yes, fares could be higher.”
Wirth’s assessment goes against some earlier messaging within the Trump administration, particularly from Energy Secretary Chris Wright.
Last weekend, Wright said gas prices have “likely peaked,” leading to an immediate rebuke from President Donald Trump, who called that claim “totally wrong.”
TRUMP SAYS IRAN HAS THREE DAYS BEFORE OIL INFRASTRUCTURE ‘EXPLODES’ DUE TO US BLOCKADE
Wright would later backtrack in a Senate hearing, saying that prices at the pump merely “look like they peaked about a week or so ago.”
Gas prices currently sit above $4 a gallon. Little movement is expected as peace talks to end the Iran war have fizzled, and hostilities in the strait have largely continued, even with the United States’s own blockade of the waterway.
